Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/15

X WJBST CORNWALL GLOSSARY. between the dwellers on the mainland " (Penzance, &c.) and the inhabitants of Scilly, or, as they would call themselves, " Scillonians." With them thread becomes ** tread, and three ** tree.** I is changed into oi, as pint, " point ; ** isles, " oiles ; " but a point would be a "pint, and boil " bile." Their voices, too, are pitched in a different key. Although none of the islands are more than three miles &om St Mary's^ the largest, on which is Hugh-town, the capital, each " Off-oisland " has a pronunciation of its own, and the people on St. Mary's often laugh at the peculiarities of the Off-oislanders," They are fond of giving their children Scriptural names — Obadiah, Methu- selah, Melchizedek, Emmanuel, Tobias; which they shorten into Diah, Thus, Dick, Manny, Bias. This custom formerly prevailed in all the villages of West Cornwall. One man was baptized Maher- shalalhashbaz, although known as Maal, and women still live who bear the names of Loruhameh and Kerenhappuck. Of the dialect and pronunciation of the eastern part of the county I know from personal experience next to nothing, never havi;ig spent more than a few weeks in that locality, except that the vowels are broader and the consonants harsher than in West Corn- wall, and that it resembles the dialect of Devon. The foUowiug table will show the peculiarities of pronunciation in the Land's End and adjacent districts : — A pron. aa; call, caal; half, haalf ; master, maaster. Have, in reading, with old parish clerks and others, is haave. (au Scilly : call, caul.) Aj pron. ee : square, squeer ; care, keer. Ai, pron. ae, botU vowels sounded : nail, nael; tail, tael. E, as e, with but few exceptions, where it becomes a, as yellow, yallow ; secret, saicret. Ee, as I, in been, bin; and meet, iiiit. Ea diphthong, as ar; meat, malt ; clean, clalnj bream, braiin. Ea in heard, heerd. Ea in earth and ear is sometimes spoken with a faint sound of y : yearth, year. ^* En is sometimes also separated, as c-arth, we-ur, at Zennor." J. AV.